A team consists of three to five students, who all attend the same high school. A team can be put together in a number of ways:

As part of an extracurricular activity. The team is made up of student volunteers who work on the Fed Challenge as an out-of-class activity. An advantage of extracurricular recruiting is the advantage of having returning participants, who can relate, first-hand, their experiences from the previous year's Challenge.

As the result of a class- or school-based competition. The class is divided into teams. Each team makes a presentation before the rest of the class; the team with the best presentation goes on to represent the school. An alternative is the "all-star" approach, in which the five best presenters in class are chosen. Or team selection can be extended to all the classes in a school by choosing either a best-of-school team or a team of the school's best presenters.

By teacher selection. A teacher assembles a team on the basis of overall performance, some in-class assignment, or expressed interest in the subject.

Other class members can get involved by taking part in team activities such as:

gathering and analyzing data and useful background information,

researching important concepts and issues that are likely to be important to monetary policy,

preparing charts and other parts of the presentation,

judging practice sessions and providing feedback, and

serving as an alternate team member in case of team member absence on the day of the competition.